RIEB, Kobe University

Sources of Cross-national Heterogeneity in E-retail Spending: Evidence from Country-Level Data

The global e-retail industry is growing rapidly. Economies worldwide, however, differ greatly in the development of the e-retail industry. Using data from forty-seven economies, this paper empirically examines how technological, economic, and institutional factors explain international heterogeneity in e-retail spending. The results indicated that broadband penetration was the strongest predictor of e-retail spending. We found that externalities mechanisms generated by the development of the conventional retail industry drives the growth of the e-retailing industry. Our findings also indicated that the degree of concentration of traditional retail sites is negatively related to the development of the e-retailing industry.